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JellyPooga
2009-09-16, 03:24 PM
I was going to write this up in its entirety before posting it, but it's turning out to be a bigger project than I first imagined, so I will rather post it in installments (this being the first). Feel free to comment and criticise as I go; your input may influence later updates!

I’ve long disagreed with the preconceptions that surround the Undead and their moral presence in whatever worlds we choose for them to exist in. Whenever they are discussed, either In- or Out of- character, they are almost always portrayed as irrevocably evil, unable to do much of anything but follow their base instincts to feed and kill. At best they will put on a show of civility in the pursuit of either of those goals. I would like to present a different point of view…

The Undead as Moral Agents

1) Intelligence, Sapience and Morality
The first thing I would like to address is the nature of thought in the game world. In D&D, sapience is defined by a creatures Intelligence Ability Score; an Intelligence of 3 being the requirement. An Intelligence of less than 3 means that the creature acts based purely on instinct (for Int 1-2, e.g. Animals) or by the exact wording of commands given to it (Int as a Non-Ability, e.g. Golems). Any creature with an Intelligence of 3 or greater has the ability to reason. It follows that a creature with the ability to reason has the ability to choose. Thus any creature with an Intelligence score greater than 2 has the choice whether to follow it’s base instincts (whatever they may be) or not. The choice between following ones instincts or serving a ‘greater good’ is the crux of morality and thus alignment.

This premis extends across the entire spectrum of creatures that inhabit the various worlds of Dungeons and Dragons, regardless of race, colour or creed. It is not, however without condition. For example, culture and society have a huge impact upon a creatures choices, but at the end of the day, the individual still has that choice. However, in a world where the concept of ‘base instinct’ can mean something other than our own, Human, instincts of territoriality and the need to feed and breed, these conditions vary greatly. Outsiders, for example, fall outside of this classification being, as they are, personifications of the particular morality that they represent. Demons do not have the choice to be Good or Lawful as they are creatures of pure Evil and Chaos.

To bring this into a perspective relative to my discourse, let us take a look at the Undead;

1) They do not deteriorate with age. They are capable of existing, theoretically, indefinitely (barring outside influence, e.g. an axe to the skull). Time (in the sense of having only a limited amount of it) is not of concern to the Undead; they’re already dead.
2) They are sustained by their connection to the Negative Energy Plane. As a default, this means that they do not require other sustenance* – food, air and water are not things that concern the undead psyche.
3) The Undead are not capable of propogating their former species any longer (they’re dead, after all). Their desire to mate is effectively as dead as they are.

* Certain Undead do require or desire certain sustenance, but these I will address later as they are special cases outside of the norm and strictly speaking they cannot die from lack of said sustenance.

The only drive left to the Undead is that of their own mortality. Despite already being dead, they are vulnerable to destruction, so self-preservation is the only thing that might give an Undead creature pause for thought. Without most of the drives of the living, an Undead creature is largely free to decide his course of action based on the relative merits and demerits of the situation, unconstrained by the selfish motives that plague the conscience of the living.

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That's it for now. I'll try to get the next installment "The Nature of the Beast" up as soon as I can. In the mean-time, I'd like to hear your thoughts thus far.

Cheers,
JP

kc0bbq
2009-09-16, 03:44 PM
The only drive left to the Undead is that of their own mortality. Despite already being dead, they are vulnerable to destruction, so self-preservation is the only thing that might give an Undead creature pause for thought. Without most of the drives of the living, an Undead creature is largely free to decide his course of action based on the relative merits and demerits of the situation, unconstrained by the selfish motives that plague the conscience of the living.Not all undead exist without need for sustenance.

And there are other things that give them pause for thought. Expedience. Loss of perspective due to loss of other motivations. Resentment due to the *loss* of those little perks of life, like procreation.

Where would the lack of selfishness come from? If, like most living creatures, had selfish streaks in life, they would have them in death. If that became muted over time, so would everything else. Why bother doing anything at all? There's no pressing need to ever stand up again.

oxybe
2009-09-16, 04:16 PM
before we can think about their motives, we need to look a bit at their creation. the thing with undead is that the process reanimating them is generally seen as:

A)corrupting the soul. if the soul has yet to leave the body the process of reanimation is generally considered a pretty horrible thing that changes the soul almost irrevocably (which is why for a proper ressurection need to kill the body and need some of the more powerful resurrection spells or whatnot to heal the damage). it can be suble or pronounced... the person becomes more violent, more distant, becomes a bit neurotic, ect... they are different then they used to.

this could be to help the soul become accustomed to it's new lifestyle or whatnot but they are generally considered "changed"

or

B)creates a new soul. might not be a soul in the normal sense of the word, but the actual soul has passed on and a new consciousness now resides in the body.

the method for animating them will vary, but the way that the soul is treated should be taken into consideration

-as for not deteriorating, this is debatable. in 4th ed, at least, undead minions are sometimes portrayed as more fragile, walk with a clumsier gait or whatnot... they're loosing the jump in their unliving step, if you will.

-need to feed is an odd one. while the connection to the negative plain in 3rd is one of the things keeping them, many "feeding" undead can accumulate penalties and disabilities if they don't feed. a ghoul might use it's devoured flesh to repair it's wounds and a vampire's thirst for blood might actually fuel it's powers, who knows really.

-unable to reproduce with old race. this is debatable if we go by published material... remember, 3rd ed had a half-vampire template, so some undead, who's bodies are generally intact and able to regenerate to some degree, could, under the proper circumstance, gain some semblance of life again, if temporarily... especially if magic can be added into the mix (spell compendium, for example, has stuff to give a semblance of life to constucts, which were never alive to begin with).